page_title: Boxer (dog)
section_title: Appearance
hierarchical_section_title: Boxer (dog) / Appearance
caption_attribution_description: English: Foreground: 2.5 year old boxer named Kenobi at the Kern River near Hart Park. Background is Kenobi's son Yoda at approximately 6 months old.
context_page_description: The Boxer is a medium to large, short-haired breed of dog, developed in Germany. The coat is smooth and tight-fitting; colors are fawn, brindled, or white, with or without white markings. Boxers are brachycephalic, have a square muzzle, mandibular prognathism, very strong jaws, and a powerful bite ideal for hanging on to large prey. The Boxer was bred from the Old English Bulldog and the now extinct Bullenbeisser which became extinct by crossbreeding rather than by a decadence of the breed. The Boxer is part of the Molosser group. This group is a category of solidly built, large dog breeds that all descend from the same common ancestor, the large shepherd dog known as a Molossus. The Boxer is a member of the Working Group.
  The first Boxer club was founded in 1895, with Boxers being first exhibited in a dog show for St. Bernards in Munich the next year. Based on 2013 American Kennel Club statistics, Boxers held steady as the seventh-most popular breed of dog in the United States for the fourth consecutive year. However, according to the AKC's website, the boxer is now the eleventh-most popular dog breed in the United States.
context_section_description: The head is the most distinctive feature of the Boxer. The breed standard dictates that it must be in perfect proportion to the body and above all it must never be too light. The greatest value is to be placed on the muzzle being of correct form and in absolute proportion to the skull. The length of the muzzle to the whole of the head should be a ratio of 1:3. Folds are always present from the root of the nose running downwards on both sides of the muzzle, and the tip of the nose should lie somewhat higher than the root of the muzzle. In addition a Boxer should be slightly prognathous, i.e., the lower jaw should protrude beyond the upper jaw and bend slightly upwards in what is commonly called an underbite or "undershot bite".
  Boxers were originally a docked and cropped breed, and this is still done in some countries. However, due to pressure from veterinary associations, animal rights groups, and the general public, both cropping of the ears and docking of the tail have been prohibited in many countries around the world. A line of naturally short-tailed (bobtail) Boxers was developed in the United Kingdom in anticipation of a tail docking ban there; after several generations of controlled breeding, these dogs were accepted in the Kennel Club (UK) registry in 1998, and today representatives of the bobtail line can be found in many countries around the world. However, in 2008 the FCI added a "naturally stumpy tail" as a disqualifying fault in their breed standard, meaning those Boxers born with a bobtail can no longer be shown in FCI member countries. In the United States and Canada as of 2012, cropped ears are still more common in show dogs, even though the practice of cosmetic cropping is currently opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. In March 2005 the AKC breed standard was changed to include a description of the uncropped ear, but to severely penalize an undocked tail. The tail of a boxer is typically docked before the cartilage is fully formed, between 3–5 days old. The procedure does not require any sutures when performed at this young age and anesthesia is not used.
caption: A brindle boxer
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